


How long do I have?

by Want_to_read234



Series: My First Whumptober (2020) [4]
Category: Iron Man (Movies), Spider-Man (Tom Holland Movies)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-04
Updated: 2020-10-04
Packaged: 2021-03-08 00:00:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,133
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26816236
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Want_to_read234/pseuds/Want_to_read234
Summary: When Peter awakens in a wooden box he turns to his mentor for help getting out.Day 4: Buried Alive
Relationships: Peter Parker & Tony Stark
Series: My First Whumptober (2020) [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1948717
Comments: 11
Kudos: 96
Collections: Whumptober 2020





	How long do I have?

**Author's Note:**

> Hi, I have always liked the buried alive tropes, so thought I would try my hand at doing one myself.
> 
> I know there are so many good ones out there, but hopefully you manage to enjoy this one!

Consciousness was slowly trickling back to Peter. He felt so tired. There was the unmistakable throb of his spider sense in the back of his neck, it had been what woken him.

He couldn’t remember what he had been doing before he woke up here. Given he doesn’t remember falling asleep, does that mean something happened during patrol? Had he been hurt?

Sliding his hand out to the side where he expected to feel a soft bed beneath him, he hit a wooden panel instead. Huh. That didn’t seem right. Moving his other hand, he found another wooden panel on that side as well.

Forcing his eyes open, he was met with darkness. Peter could feel his heart beating in his chest as his breathing picked up pace. He was starting to hyperventilate as his hands pressed against the wooden panel above him.

He knew he was panicking and that it wouldn’t help anything. He needed to get his breathing under control if he wanted to get out of whatever this was.

What were those techniques that Mr Stark had talked him through when he had had a panic attack in the lab a couple of weeks ago? Something about 4-7-8… Oh right, breathe in for 4 seconds, hold for 7 seconds then breathe out for 8. Peter stuttered through it a couple of times, before being able to get through a full round smoothly.

Managing to think a bit clearer, Peter focused on what he knew so far.

He was currently trapped in what appeared to be a box.

He couldn’t hear anything but suffocating silence outside of said box.

The overwhelming smell of dirt was surrounding him. That was odd, he must be out in the country or something.

Pushing the top of the box with his spider strength he felt it starting to move, but as soon as a gap was created dirt poured in it. Jumping in fright, Peter dropped the lid back down stopping the flow.

Oh God. He wasn’t just surrounded by dirt. He was _buried_ in it. 

Glancing around the box again, it suddenly dawned on him that it was a coffin.

He was _buried_ in a _coffin._

Peter’s breathing hitched.

“Ok, just think Peter,” filling the deafening silence seemed like a good way to try and calm his nerves. “Even if you get the lid off you will probably suffocate in the dirt before you reach air… oh wow that’s not helping. Ok, back on track. There has to be something you can do to get out of here…”

Glancing around the coffin again Peter noticed that he was still wearing his watch. His watch! Of course, Mr Stark had installed a panic button. He just had to press and hold the button and it would call the man himself. It was designed for emergencies, and if this didn’t count then Peter wasn’t sure what would.

Twisting his arm over his body to reach the button, he pressed and waited. His thoughts were coming slowly. He should have thought of using the panic button the minute he woke.

The almost inaudible click of the watch connecting to the system brought him from his thoughts.

“Peter?!” Tony’s frantic voice sounded from his wrist. “Peter, where are you? You were supposed to be here over an hour ago! Karen says you’re not in the suit, so do you care to explain to me – “

“Mr Stark…” Peter whimpered.

“What’s wrong? Where are you?”

“I don’t know. I think I’ve been buried... Mr Stark. I don’t know where I am and I don’t know what to do-”

“Woah, woah, woah. You’re going to be ok. I’ll find you. If your watch can connect to me then Friday will be able to locate you. Just breathe slow ok? Panicking will just make things worse Pete.” He could hear Mr Stark moving, and the sound of the suit forming around him. “Have you been hurt?”

After doing a quick mental once over Peter assured him, “No, no, I don’t think so.”

“Good, that’s good Underoos.” 

The sound of Iron Mans repulsors were filtering through the speakers of his watch. He closed his eyes and took a deep steadying breath. This was good. If Mr Stark was on his way, then he would be fine. He just hoped that he would be quick, he wasn’t sure how long he had. His head was already spinning. He guessed that was a bad sign.

“H-hey Mr Stark?”

“Yeah, kid?” His mentors voice sounded tight as he replied.

“Do you know how long I have in here? Like if I’m buried in a coffin, do you know how long till I run out of air?” He could hear his mentors stuttering inhale through the line. “Or I suppose I would need to worry about carbon monoxide poisoning first, huh?” His voice was wavering as the worst-case scenarios started to flit through his mind.

“You don’t need to worry about that Pete. I’ll be there and have you out before you need to worry about that, we have hours before that’s a possibility,” Peter could hear the tone of the thrusters’ change as Mr Stark increased his speed, “besides Rhodey and a digging team are also on their way so you just have to focus on remaining calm to buy us as much time as possible, ok?”

Taking a shaky breath Peter nodded, before realising that Mr Stark wouldn’t see it. “Yeah, Ok Mr Stark.”

“I’m going to need you to keep talking to a minimum Pete, okay? Talking uses up too much unnecessary oxygen, but I’m going to keep this call open the full time. I’m not going anywhere.” He could hear the hesitance in his mentors voice.

Peter started back up with his 4-7-8 breathing to try and keep it slow.

“That’s it Pete, just nice calm breathing”

Peter tried to focus on his mentors voice. It helped to know that he was on his way with a team of people to get him out of this. The only sound coming through the watch was Mr Starks breathing and the thrusters.

Focusing on the sounds of Mr Starks breathing, Peter tried to pretend he was just in the lab working. Closing his eyes, he pictured himself sitting at his desk in the corner, finishing off his algebra homework or starting to mix together a new batch of webbing while Mr Stark would work somewhere behind him silently. He thought about the English essay he was supposed to be starting today in the lab, maybe this way he would actually get it planned out before he wrote it later. MJ was always telling him that he should put more effort into his essays. Maybe it was a blessing in disguise.

A blessing that might lead to him suffocating by himself, trapped in a coffin.

Alone.

Ok, this isn’t working. He needs a distraction.

“Mr Stark?” His mentor hummed in acknowledgement “Talk please?”

“You want me to talk kid?”

“Mmhmm” Peter hummed back. His thoughts were becoming slower and not as tangible as he is used to, but that could be purely panic. God, he hoped it was panic and not carbon monoxide poisoning starting to set in.

“Sure, I can do that. It’s not gonna be too much longer till I see you so just make sure you pay attention for the quiz later.” Mr Stark took a deep breath that halted part way through, like he felt bad for breathing the air so freely. “Did I ever tell you about the time back at MIT when I dragged Rhodey to a spring break party and he took home a lovely woman called Ivan? Probably not, I’m sure it’s the type of story I’m not supposed to share but its good future blackmail material.”

As Mr Stark started telling him about his and Rhodeys antics back in the day, Peter felt his attention drifting.

He was finding it harder and harder to focus on the present and his sight was going fuzzy around the edges. He wasn’t sure what was happening, but he was questioning whether he was actually going to see his mentor again.

“Mr Stark?”

His mentors voice suddenly cut off mid-sentence, “Yeah kid? We’ve got a team digging now. Just need you to hang on for a little while longer.”

“T-that’s good. I j-just wanted to tell you that I-I’m not sc-scared anymore,” Peter’s thoughts were jumbled. He couldn’t remember why he wanted to pass that message on. “I can’t remember why that’s important, but I wanted you to know”

“Of course you don’t need to be scared Pete” his mentors voice shook as he responded. “I’m going to get you out of there and then we are going to have a movie night yeah?”

“Y-yeah, that sounds good,” Peter could feel tears pooling in the corner of his eyes. With each slow blink, he felt a couple trickle down towards his ears. It was getting harder to keep his eyes open. He could take a nap. “I think I’m going to take a nap m’sir Sta’k, m’ tired”

“No Peter. Don’t go to sleep, I need you to stay awake for me. No sleeping yet!” Mr Stark sounded frightened. That didn’t seem right, his mentor wasn’t scared of anything, he was Iron Man!

He could hear his mentors frantic voice coming from his watch. He couldn’t get his mind to focus enough to pick apart the words anymore, but his tone made Peter feel uneasy. His limbs were feeling heavier as his head slid to the side. He could barely open his eyes anymore.

“S’okay mis’er star’ m’ jus gonna have a sleep. Love you” he forced the words out, trying to calm his mentors. But the voice coming from his watch only got louder. It should probably concern Peter, but he was too tired to respond to voice.

Peter could no longer open his eyes, no matter how hard he fought to. Not that he wanted to anyway with how tired he was. So he stopped fighting. There was a horrible pressure building in his chest but with any luck some sleep would make it go away.

Just as Peter drifted off, he could have sworn he felt his mentors hand touching his face and shoulders.

xXxXxXxXx

There was an annoying beeping somewhere to Peter’s left when he was next aware of his surroundings. Turning to pull a pillow over his head to ignore it, brought his attention to a nasal canula that from the cool whooshing was likely feeding him oxygen. It was probably helping, but it tickled. Reaching up a hand to remove it he felt a rough large hand wrap around his wrist stopping him.

“Don’t even think about it kid. It’s helping you” his mentors voice sounded soft but tired.

Opening his eyes, took a little more effort than he would have liked, but the thought of seeing his mentor was providing motivation.

Mr Stark was sitting in a chair by his bed smiling at him. Peter could see the deep, dark circles under his eyes and he looked like he had aged 10 years over night. The images of being trapped in a coffin came back to his mind, and he took a deep, oxygen filled breath.

“Hey Mr Stark” Peter croaked. “Thanks for saving me”

“You don’t need to thank me underoos. I’m always going to save you no matter what,” Tony sniffed and looked away from Peter as he continued “cause I love you too Pete.” His hand had moved from Peters wrist to start carding through his hair instead.

Peter watched the honesty in his mentors face, as he breathed out “I love you as well Mr Stark, but I guess you already knew that.”

He could see the corners of his mentors lips twitch into a smile, as he suddenly sat back clapping his hand. “Right, that’s enough emotional talk to last me for at least a month” aiming a smile in Peters direction before he continued, to make sure Peter knew he wasn’t being serious , “how about you scoot over and we watch some more of that Brooklyn cop show that you like so much? Cho said you were to stay in bed for a while yet and this is a great excuse to get out of work – which Pep can’t complain about – so a show binge seems like a good shout”

“Y-yeah Mr Stark, that sounds great” shuffling over on the bed to give his mentor space as Friday queued up an episode of Brooklyn-99.

As the gang on the screen started planning yet another Halloween heist, Peter sighed in contentment and leant his head back against his mentors shoulder, as Mr Stark wrapped his arm around his shoulders.


End file.
